"Nobody was really talking," junior goalie Kevin Murdock said. "Everybody was in their own zone."

Said coach Jim Roque: "I was pissed off, not happy at all. My biggest problem was we disrespected (Huntsville), we disrespected ourselves and we disrespected hockey in general. The guys were ticked off from last night."

Just under 24 hours later, it was a different story as the Lakers scored three first-period goals and beat Huntsville 4-0 to earn their sixth split in as many series this season.

"We were a lot more physical today than (Friday)," said sophomore Chris Ciotti, who scored two goals and now has a team-high six goals. "We just kind of realized it's not really fun losing."

Murdock had his first career shutout, stopping 25 shots. Murdock had to sit out the first two series of the season dealing with NCAA eligibility issues but returned just in time when Kevin Kapalka was injured in the first game against Michigan State. After a rough outing in his first start of the season, Murdock has given up just nine goals in the last six games. He is seventh in the nation with a .941 save percentage and 13th with a 1.92 goals against average.

"Really happy for him to get the shutout," Roque said. "He hasn't got a lot of run support lately. His numbers are good, but the record isn't there because we're not scoring goals."

As has been the case all season, the Lakers (6-6) haven't just split series, they have split personalities, dominating one game while being sluggish in the other. The past three weekends, the Lakers have scored one goal in one of the games (all losses) and scored four goals in the other game (all wins).

"I haven't had that much this year," Murdock said. "That third goal there in the first took a big weight off my shoulders."

Kapalka dressed this weekend but did not play. Roque said they still haven't received the results from his shoulder MRI and that Kapalka still had some soreness in practice this week. And until he's ready, Murdock has done a more-than-capable job.

"I feel like I'm getting in a rhythm, a routine, getting back to playing on a more consistent basis," Murdock said. "I mean, I wasn't expecting to be in this situation, but I had a pretty good idea what I was going to do. That's my goal, to make Coach want to put me in the next night."

Ben Power, Chris Ciotti and Stephen Perfetto scored in the first period, and Ciotti added his second goal in the third. Gregg Gruehl took the loss for the Chargers (1-10-1), stopping 13 shots before getting pulled after the first period. John Griggs stopped 33 shots in the second two periods.

Page 2 of 2 - "They compete, they play hard, they have good goaltending. Anybody can beat anybody, that's the beauty of college hockey," Roque said.

The Lakers put 50 shots on goal, the most since a 4-3 double-overtime loss to Western Michigan on March 7, 2009. The Lakers host Ohio State next weekend. The Buckeyes swept Northern Michigan at home this weekend.